he responds by saying that armstrong is trying to continue to cover up but the evidence has revealed the truth about his doping. to read the report and armstrong's full statement, go to cnn.com. hello, everyone. top of the hour, i'm don lemon. the stories you're talking about in just a moment. but first, we want to get you up to speed on the headlines right now. of course, look at these people in washington, d.c. they're stocking up already on bottled water, on batteries, canned food. a category 1 hurricane is spinning offshore and is getting close to them. hurricane sandy, we're talking about. forecasters say it probably will come ashore likely in the d.c. area. the storm is off south carolina right now. make sure you stay right there. i'm about to talk with a weather scientist on board a plane inside the hurricane. the storm has forced the presidential candidates to rearrange their travel plans. president barack obama campaigns in florida tomorrow.

that's away from the storm. and mitt romney has canceled rallies in virginia. he'll be in ohio instead. i want you to take a look at this young lady. this is amanda rubio, the 12-year-old daughter of florida senator marco rubio. she'll spend the night in a miami hospital after a golf cart accident today. she has a head injury and is in fair condition. her dad, the senator, was campaigning with mitt romney when he got the news and headed immediately to miami. we have a lot more planned for you this saturday night. here's what else we're working on. ridiculous rhetoric. >> explain to me why retard is inappropriate. >> from ann coulter to donald trump rn trump, the partisan election blather explodes. we take a stand. the poll, so many of them, who do they call? my cell phone or land line, should we believe them? we have of questions for the

pollster who knows it all. here comes sandy, the massive hurricane barreling up the east coast heading straight towards the biggest city, new york, philadelphia, boston and d.c. all that, plus, selling your virginity. what your halloween costume set about your inner freak factor and why christina aguilera may be sitting on her best asset. let's get back now to our top story. that is hurricane sandy. still a day from landfall. but forecasters are not mincing words about the power of this storm. they say when it does come ashore we'll see major flooding, widespread power outages and possibly washington, d.c. where it should come ashore, philadelphia, new york city, new england, all right in the forecast here. right now, there's nobody closer than this -- closer to the storm than jessica williams, a meteorologist on board on airplane flying inside the hurricane right now. tell us what you know, what

you're seeing and witnessing about this particular hurricane as you fly through it, jessica. jessica, can you hear me? >> yes, i can hear you. jessica williams on the noaa b-3 orion 800. we're exiting the nostorm environment from the northwest. >> jessica, what are you seeing inside the hurricane? >> on the northwest of the storm, we are in a lot of turbulence right now, occasional, moderate turbulence. there are spiral bands of precipitation around the northwest of the storm. it's still a very tropical storm in the center but on the northwest, it has more cold front features to it. >> what does that mean for the intensity of this storm from what you're witnessing on the northwest side?

does that mean it's going to make it more powerful? >> i couldn't really understand your question. >> okay. >> but i believe what you're asking is being a tropical storm becoming more subtropical, the wind speed is spreading out. there's a higher wind speed that will affect the larger area. highest wind speeds we found 105 miles out from the storm. >> okay, jessica williams, thank you very much. she's on board a plane right now going through the storm. and obviously she's witnessing some turbulence, she said, and also a lot of wind and a lot of rain. you can expect this one to be a huge monster when it indeed comes ashore. hopefully it will go out but forecasters say it's not likely and they expect it to make landfall on monday. if it does, it will be headed right towards washington, d.c. right now with the forecasted path. back to that in a moment.

so just going to be honest with you here. what do you think of the word retard? is it offensive? do you cringe when you hear it? some people do the same thing. they cringe when they hear the name ann coulter because they know she will do anything for publicity like tweeting that the president of the united states is a retard and go on tv to defend it. >> i would not make a joke about a down syndrome child. it means idiot. word police come in five minutes ago and say, no, we're going to tell you what to do. they're the biggest bullies of all, these self-appointed victims. >> a lot of people have a few choice names for her. but that's just the beginning. there's trump, there's sanunu and there's palin.

ana navarro and lz granderson. lz, i'm going to start with you first. go. >> okay. well, i think you nailed it, right? she's mattering because she said something ridiculous and we're jumping all over it. she's a publicity hound. that's what they do and she's very good at it. i don't know if her book sales were down or if she was tired of everyone talking about donald trump. she said it because she knew it would be offensive and we'd be talking about it now. it is what it is. what we can't do is allow these people to dictate the political conversation. let them stay in their little box of publicity but not bleed into what we need to talk about in terms of the election. >> ana, as far as ann coulter, what do you say? >> i agree a lot with what lz has just said. as you all know, don, that's not my brand of politics. and i don't think that she is a political pundit. i think she's an entertainer. i think she has another niche. we see outrageous things going

on from, for example, bill maher. and they're not shaping the political discourse. they've got a niche. they're entertainers. they are provocators. they like to get the conversation going. they like attention and they cause attention. but i don't think that that's what the substance of our political discourse or the tone of it should be like. >> i would like to check in. i'll send an e-mail -- i'd like to check in with former alaska governor sarah palin to see what she has to say about this since she has a child with down syndro syndrome. she probably wouldn't like it, but i don't want to speak for her. >> don, i have a brother who is mentally challenged. and i can tell you, i don't like the use of the word. >> let's move on to donald trump and his big announcement. >> if barack obama opens up and gives his college records and applications and if he gives his passport applications and records, i will give to a

charity of his choice, inner city children in chicago, american cancer society, aids research, anything he wants, a check immediately for $5 million. >> give it to some other black things that i can think of. come on, donald trump. before we talk about it, let's talk about the backlash, even from one of his longtime friends, a journalist who prides herself on objectivity. listen. >> donald, you're making a fool of yourself. donald, you're not hurting obama. you're hurting donald and that hurts me because you're a decent man. stop it. get off it, donald. >> wow, i was surprised watching that moment. listen, lz, it turned out to be nothing more than a publicity stunt. is this birther 2.0 here?

>> you know what this is? this is an opportunity for mitt romney to make me feel better if he happens to be president because this is the guy who was supposed to speak during the freaking convention, right? and this is what he's doing. what would be nice for either paul ryan or mitt romney or some other large political figure within the republican party is to just do what barbara walters did which is to say, dude, stop it. you're embarrassing us, you're embarrassing the conversation, you're embarrassing the country and you need to stop it. instead, they're silenced. that silence bothers me. to me, it suggests that, it makes us uncomfortable but if it can get us votes, keep him around. people like him and ann coulter, we need to say, you need to go away because you're not part of the future that we want. >> we're going to have another segment on this and other outlandish things being said on the campaign trail. do you think more republicans should come out and say, please

stop this, it's not productive? what do you think? >> i think the worst thing we could do for donald trump is not talk about him. i think that's what would hurt him the most. he was trying to help with mitt romney that, i don't think he achieved that. if he offers $5 million to charity and to self-deport, i think that's an offer that president obama should seriously consider. >> for him to self-deport. my goodness. guy, don't go anywhere. we're talking about sarah palin and john sanunu. [ male announcer ] citi turns 200 this year.

in that time there've been some good days. and some difficult ones. but, through it all, we've persevered, supporting some of the biggest ideas in modern history. so why should our anniversary matter to you? because for 200 years, we've been helping ideas move from ambition to achievement. and the next great idea could be yours. ♪ and the next great idea could be yours. syou know, i've helped a lot off people save a lot of money. but today...( sfx: loud noise of large metal object hitting the ground) things have been a little strange.

(sfx: sound of piano smashing) roadrunner: meep meep. meep meep? (sfx: loud thud sound) what a strange place. geico®. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. see life in the best light. [music] transitions® lenses automatically filter just the right amount of light. so you see everything the way it's meant to be seen. experience life well lit, ask for transitions adaptive lenses. monarch of marketing analysis. with the ability to improve roi through seo all by cob. and you...rent from national. because only national lets you choose any car in the aisle... and go. you can even take a full-size or above, and still pay the mid-size price. i'm going b-i-g.

[ male announcer ] good choice business pro. good choice. go national. go like a pro. . now more outrageous campaign antics. sarah palin wrote on her facebook page the president and shucking and jiving about libya and later said, it wasn't a derogatory thing. and for the record, she responded by saying nothing racist about her comments. are we surprised? no. but we probably should be surprised. then there's john sununu. >> and, frankly, when you take a look at colin powell, you have to wonder whether that's an endorsement based on issues or whether he's got a slightly different reason for endorsing president obama. >> what reason would that be? >> well, when you have somebody of your own race that you're proud of being president of the united states, i applaud colin for standing with him.

>> ana, discuss. >> well, look, he has since walked it back and admitted that there are policy issues that colin powell is a friend of his. i think what he said was not the right thing to say. i don't think it was correct. i think colin powell is a very respected person. >> ana, ana, ana, loon, why is john sununu after all the things he says -- i'm just asking and i'm not a partisan person. it doesn't matter to me. i'm a journalist. or that you like -- you guys are trying to get mitt romney elected president. neither of which is true. but why is john sununu a surrogate for the romney campaign when he says such outlandish you know what? why?

>> i don't know why they would use him at this stage of the game, frankly. because he is somebody that does not have much of a filter. and we are at a stage of the campaign where, listen, mitt romney could win. he's actually doing very well. >> absolutely. but john sununu is not helping the case. >> we don't need any unforced errors. and i think that when you put john sununu out there, he is a guy who says what he thinks. sometimes it comes out wrong. he's got no filters. i would say, get him off tv between now and november 6th. >> go ahead, lz. >> we know why he's there. he's there because he speaks to a certain -- a number of people within the romney base. he gets them fired up. it's the same reason why bill maher says the things he says. it fires up a particular part of their base. john sununu is a racist. i'm just going to call it. i'm just going to say it. >> i was not responding to you when you said john sununu is a

racist. i understand what you're saying but bill maw ser not a surrogate for the obama campaign. >> no, he's not. >> he's not been interviewed and making the case. he donates his money. that's his business. but it's not the same thing. >> and also i think it's not right to judge somebody a racist without knowing them. >> i just string together -- if this was just a one-time comment, then you're right, i wouldn't say that. but if you just look at what this man has said about the president, about black people over the last 3 1/2 to 4 years, i don't understand how anyone who doesn't have those sort of view, harbor those sort of views, either you're such a monstrous politician who's going to manipulate a base as much as you can and you don't care what you say or do in other words to do so or you're a racist. this is just me. i don't know the man personally. but if you say racist stuff over

and over again, at some point i'm just going to start to think you're a racist. that's just my personal opinion. i believe the man is probably harboring some sort of racist feelings about black people. the a.p. poll came out today that said much of the nation have negative opinions about black people. and you hear this from somebody who's supposed to be a respected leader of the republican party and said this thing about a respected member of the military because of race. i don't know what else to make of it besides being a racist. >> he did not say horrible things about colin powell. he said something that was not well said and that he shouldn't have said. he said that he thought the endorsement was based on race. i think you are entitled to your personal opinion, lz. i don't share it. i don't think i know the man well enough to judge him a racist and that's a charge that i take very, very seriously. i think we got almost to the end of this campaign without having a heated discussion on race or

mormonism or mitt romney's religion, which also a lot of people have issues with. and i almost hope that we get -- we're that close to november 6th. let's get there without this kind of poison becoming part of the political discourse this late on. >> yeah. listen, this is -- >> this isn't something that's being introduced. it's always been there. because we haven't talked about it doesn't mean it isn't there. just means we haven't talked about it. >> i'll say this, when people say there's no evidence that, like lz says, what are you going to believe? me or your lying ears or your lying eyes. you hear things. you know what the insinuations are and then you wonder as i said to you, why put him out there and why after he says a number of crazy things -- and he's not the only one. you don't need a misstep at this

point. that is a question. he obviously speaks to some people in the republican party who mitt romney and paul ryan want to go to the voting booths. and that's why he's there continuing to say it. we'll move on. it's a great conversation. i wish we could have more of it. but we have to talk about polls. there are polls putting obama ahead, polls putting romney ahead, poll that is completely contradict the other polls. a pollster is next. we've been there. that's why every bit of financial advice we offer is geared specifically to current and former military members and their families. [ laughs ] dad! dad! [ applause ] ♪ [ male announcer ] life brings obstacles. usaa brings advice. call or visit us online. we're ready to help.

♪ ♪ we're lucky, it's not every day you find a companion as loyal as a subaru. love. it's what makes a subaru, a subaru. we don't let frequent heartburn come between us and what we love. so if you're one of them people who gets heartburn and then treats day after day... block the acid with prilosec otc and don't get heartburn in the first place! [ male announcer ] one pill each morning. 24 hours. zero heartburn.

have you seen the presidential polls lately? that was retor tall. who hasn't? romney's in the lead. obama's not lead. it's a virtual dead heat. if you're like me, you're confused. so --

>> the 7-eleven metric, you get a red cup for the republican, a blue cup for the democrat. >> let's take a look at how pollsters get these numbers and get a better idea of where the polls stands. michael, welcome. >> thanks for having me. >> let's get wonky with it. you've heard the conversations before. we don't hold anything back. we hear people all the time say, pollsters never call me. who are you calling? >> we are calling people all over the country. we'll call you on your home phone. we'll call you on your cell phone. we're trying to reach as random a selection of people all across this country as we can. >> you said home phone and cell phone. most people think and maybe it's a misconception, most people think you only call people who have home phones, therefore it's older people because younger people don't have home phones anymore.

very few young people have home phones. you're getting a sampling from both? >> yeah. and both of the major polls all are included cell phones now. you can't reach any young people if you don't call cell phones, virtually. even then, it's harder to reach young people mostly because they just live busier lives even on their cell phones, they're just harder to reach, harder to pin down for a period of time. but the cell phones really do help get us a better selection of the american public. >> are you saying there -- are you maybe lacking in the younger demographic? you can do better in all polls across the board? >> yeah, younger people are among the hardest people for us to reach. >> we have a lot we want to cover here. can polls drive public opinion? they reveal what people think. can they also change how people plan to vote? >> you know, i don't think there's clear evidence of that. i think you can find examples that have worked either way where a candidate who gets ahead, maybe that inspires or

excites their base. but sometimes when all the polls are looking bad for your guy, that guy's supporters can still get engaged. you saw even this year when the romney felt like all the polls were against them but his supporters have gotten much more engaged in the days since then. i'm not sure the polls are driving voters in any particular way. >> so help me out here. let's look at some of the latest polls. national poll here, the national poll, this is a 49%, romney, 48%, president obama. does a national poll really mean anything because the swing states are what counts, we hear. georgia's going to be red. we know what column it's going in. it's a swing state, especially with the electoral college, does the national poll mean anything? >> national poll gives you the sense of an ebb and flow in a campaign. whether the debates or events

had an effect. typically states will all sort of move together one direction or another. whether that's the case this year, you could make the argument that ohio, florida, wisconsin and nevada are all very different states but the general temperature of the campaign, i think, is best shown in those broader national polls. >> so in the swing states like in ohio, in florida -- like ohio now, 50% for obama, 46%, romney. you can do that with all of them. and then there's a margin of error. if you have a three or four-point margin of error, you'll say, obama's in the lead but he's within the three-point margin of error, you really haven't told me anything. >> we've told you it's a close race. >> all right. let's talk about the poll of polls. when you factor -- there are different factors, there are different methodologies that go into poll of polls, right? but people -- the people who do the polling don't consider a margin of error but there are different margins of error that

go into the poll of polls. what? >> i think the polls of polls or the various websites that track and aggregate the polls are useful. it's a place to look at a lot of polls at once. but those numbers are mixing good polls and bad polls, really large, substantial polls with really small minor polls. it's hard to get much other than a finger in the wind of how things might be blowing at the moment. i think it all -- it's all a part of the sense -- people want polls to be more accurate than they can be. polls are scientific. they are meaningful but they do only have so much accuracy. adding a whole bunch of them together doesn't necessarily give you that much more accuracy. it's just a lot more numbers, as you're saying. >> do you think that people have gotten sort of now because there are so many different polls -- just being honest. you saw "the daily show" thing on it. there are so many of them, it's all a blur when they see a poll, they just go, whatever? >> right. i think that's true. and unfortunately as you get

later into the game, polls become commodities. it's just a number. who's ahead? who's behind? the value of these polls is looking behind just that horse race of the election and understanding what people's priorities are, understanding what issues they really care about and which candidates are stronger and weaker on each of those issues. we can tell people a lot about that. telling you who's ahead by two percentage points, no poll is going to be very good at. >> thank you. thank you very much. michael, we appreciate it. very good stuff. >> thank you. >> you know it's getting close to election day when you hear about all the crazy tactics that are happening right now and the dirty tricks. and they're getting worse. our joe johns joins us in a moment for that. but first, for the first time ever an african-american woman has won sundance film festival's best director award for her film. >> i'm a black woman filmmaker. >> i can't believe it.

ten months early. it's great news. you've got everything going for you. you're coming home. >> at this point, i've made films that i've written. it takes a lot to make a film. it's a lot of brainpower, a lot of heart, a lot of your spirit goes into these films. the framing of the shots in my films, the choices of music, the cadence and rhythm of the editing, all of that i'm very aware is coming through who i am. and i'm a sister. so i wear that very proudly. i made a career change from publicist to filmmaker. for me as a publicist, i had a great job. but i would be on film sets in pain wanting to do my own. i was asked to work on films that i thought were caricatures of us as women. for me, it was really about pushing through all that fear.

this is blowing my mind. the only thing that drove me is just this idea of forward moving, never to stay still. there's something very powerful and something amazing to be said for momentum. my next film, "middle of nowhere," we're pushing that out and excited about the life it's having since we debuted at sundance. the fact that it's touching people and changing things, i'm really excited about that right now. i think it's really been a beautiful journey, the good and the bad. it's all gotten me to where i am right now, which is a place that feels beautiful and supportive and comfortable and fulfilled. >> soledad is going to examine the questions about skin color and race in "who is black in america?" . it premiered sunday, december 9th only on cnn.

layaway's back, right? yep, you can pay a little at a time. our boys. husband's sister's boys. play cousins. i'm just gettin' started. woo! [ male announcer ] shop now and put it on layaway. so, you have more time to pay. walmart. introducing the new droid razr maxx hd by motorola. now more than ever droid does. we're not in london, are we? no. why? apparently my debit card is. what? i know.

don't worry, we have cancelled your old card. great. thank you. in addition to us monitoring your accounts for unusual activity, you could also set up free account alerts. okay. [ female announcer ] at wells fargo we're working around the clock to help protect your money and financial information. here's your temporary card. welcome back. how was london? [ female announcer ] wells fargo. together we'll go far. with the fidelity stock screener, you can try strategies from independent experts and see what criteria they use. such as a 5% yield on dividend-paying stocks. then you can customize the strategies and narrow down to exactly those stocks you want to follow. i'm mark allen of fidelity investments. the expert strategies feature is one more innovative reason serious investors are choosing fidelity. now get 200 free trades when you open an account.

so you know election day is near because the campaign tactics are getting more off the wall and dirtier. a few examples for you, these official looking mailers were sent to people in several florida counties questioning the citizenship status of some residents. turns out, they were fake, designed apparently to suppress the hispanic vote. and then there are billboards like this one, dozens went up warning of the penalties for voter fraud. practically all of them were posted in low income and minority neighborhoods. sounds like a case for cnn's joe johns to investigate. and he did. joe, those billboards are coming down because of public pressure. but the damage may already be done, meaning making the voting booth a place to fear rather than a place for democracy. why all this stuff? what's going on? >> reporter: well it may be

creating confusion. but you know, we call it silly season, the last few weeks before an election, politics gets as dirty as it can, especially in places like ohio and florida where it matters most because you know florida and ohio are two battleground states that can swing the election. but to be clear, this kind of stuff goes on every election. what may be different now is social media shining a light on it, regular people sort of seeing the underbelly of campaigning and they don't like it. that's perhaps why we're hearing more about it. >> what is your twitter feed? @joejohnscnn? >> yes. >> if you want good reading, go to that and see what you come up with. it's fun. are these examples of a wider effort to keep turnout down among certain ethnic or income groups? the right will say no, the left will say yes. >> reporter: you got it. and you have to do these things

case by case. nobody's ever going to tell you what the real deal is. but it could be a question of intimidation in some cases. look at the signs in ohio and wisconsin, all they really did was state the law. voter fraud is a felony but the question is whether that kind of language was intimidating to people who saw the billboards and what the signs didn't say was that voter fraud is a problem in far less than 1% of the -- >> is voter fraud a big problem in this country? i have said no over and over on this program. and people will fight and go, no, it is -- it's not a problem. >> reporter: you can find all kind of anecdotes about voter fraud that go back years and years. but the question is whether research-wise, scientifically, impe emperically, is it the kind of problem that is substantial enough to launch a trend or whatever? and people say, no, no, it's just not that big of a problem.

and there have been a lot of studies trying to find out differently. so far they found out that it's a very small problem. and that's why i address it the way i do. >> what is interesting to me is that the voter fraud issues don't come from people who are trying to vote and are not registered or use someone else's name. it comes from people who are, quote, unquote registering people or are in the process -- that's not the issue. if there is an issue with voter fraud, it's not the issue of a voter going in. >> reporter: right, in-person voter fraud. >> one man was caught on video talking about ways to cast fraudulent ballots. is that a widespread tactic? i don't think so. >> reporter: yeah, honestly, i can't tell you -- i've looked at that tape more than a few times and it's confusing what they were talking about because the more you listen to it, the more

it sounds like any type of voter fraud that might have been contemplated in that conversation would actually be harder than just going and getting out the vote. patrick moran has said he would never endorse any illegal activity. he said he was just responding to a guy who was interviewing him. he thought it was a joke. the truth is, though, i think, you can get plenty of anecdotes about voter fraud. just haven't been any statistical proof -- >> the guy in florida hired by the republican party to register voters -- and the fliers being send out, that's a whole other issues. it's not voters, it's people trying to -- >> reporter: and the lines blur, don. sometimes the lines between so-called voter suppression and voter fraud tend to blur, like that case you were just describing down in florida where they send out letters.

they come from the state of washington. they're telling people, we're questioning your citizenship, we're questioning your registration. is that fraud? yes, the authorities say, they think it's mail fraud. but is it also perhaps suppression? yeah, it could be that, too. so the lines sort of blur there a little bit. >> joe johns, great conversation, thank you. we'll be right back. thank you, joe. [ male announcer ] when it comes to the financial obstacles

military families face, we understand. at usaa, we know military life is different. we've been there. that's why every bit of financial advice we offer is geared specifically to current and former military members and their families. [ laughs ] dad! dad! [ applause ] ♪ [ male announcer ] life brings obstacles. usaa brings advice. call or visit us online. we're ready to help. at meineke i have options... like oil changes starting at $19.95. my money. my choice. my meineke.

upclose look at the world according to lance armstrong. this is the way many of us remember him, an athlete without equal. in that documentary first shown in australia, the disgraced cyclist denied cheating to win seven tour de france titles. but former friends and teammates say armstrong is a liar. the documentary investigation was led by reporter quinton mcdermott. he joins us from sydney, australia. thank you for joining us. you have seen the evidence and heard armstrong's denial. what do you think after it? did he cheat? >> i don't think there's any doubt whatsoever, don, that he cheated. this was indeed the biggest heist ever carried out in sport. it was the biggest fraud ever carried out in sport. and it was highly organized.

and the man leading that organization and leading the fraud within his own team was lance armstrong. i don't think there's any doubt of that at all. >> quenton, do you think that armstrong will ever admit to cheating or do you think he will die insisting he was clean? >> i think when you look at the sworn deposition that he gave and the fact that he repeatedly again and again and again apparently lies, if all the evidence which has been presented so far is to be believed -- and i think most people do now believe that evidence -- he lies again and again and again and he's built up this enormous edifice of lies which he inhabits now. so i think in fact it is possible unlikely that he will ever actually come clean although of course it will be good for the sport if he did so and it would probably be better for him if he did as well. >> the tour de france organizers say no one will be declared

winners for the years that armstrong finished first and many see it as an admission that there were many more people in line behind lance armstrong who were doping as well. is that an admission by them, do you believe? >> well, i think it's not only an admission, don, it's a fact that something like at one-third of the top ten winners in ten years from about 1998 onwards were tainted by doping. that's simply a fact. a lot of them were found guilty through tests, where they, if you like, tested positive for doping. and others came out and admitted it eventually. there's no question that it would be an impossible task to reassign those titles to any of the other top finishers. >> quenton, thank you so much for joining us here on cnn.

a company who wants christina aguilera to be her frontperson because they say she may be sitting on her biggest asset. and all along we thought her gift was her voice. but it just might be her curves. . everyday you see all the ways all of us at us bank are helping grow our economy. lending more so companies and communities can expand, grow stronger and get back to work. everyday you see all of us serving you, around the country, around the corner. us bank.

our boys. husband's sister's boys. play cousins. i'm just gettin' started. woo! [ male announcer ] shop now and put it on layaway. so, you have more time to pay. walmart. so, you have more time to pay. see life in the best light. [music] transitions® lenses automatically filter just

the right amount of light. so you see everything the way it's meant to be seen. experience life well lit, ask for transitions adaptive lenses.

worlds of entertainment and politics especially this close to the election bleed into each other, of course. on 30 rock, don cheadle is paid to endorse mitt romney. here it is. >> hi, i'm hollywood liberal don cheadle and i support -- barack obama would have you believe that african-americans are better off under his leadership. but i just got $10 million for appearing in an ad for mitt romney. so ask yourselves, brothers and sisters, who's really got your back? because from where i'm standing, mitt romney is -- oh, my dear -- >> dean is here. your new article on cnn.com, are you getting more material from the right or from the left? >> it depends on what you're

talking about. i try to get material from both. i think sometimes some of the politicians on the right give us more material. but some of the stuff this week was ridiculous. you had trump and coulter and sarah palin and john sununu. i just wrote an article entitled "ignore the publicity whores." the media reflects what we want. if ann coulter doesn't date ratings on piers morgan, she's not going to get them -- >> you were really flabbergasted at that. and then you sent me something -- and i hadn't seen it because i was off this week -- about sarah palin. why did that get to you so much? >> she knows exactly what that means. she knows -- it's a coded -- it's a dog whistle for race. we know it. instead of saying president obama -- it's a term used by slaves when they were joking

with each other or even trying to lie to the master. it's outrageous. people like her are just about publicity. it's not about helping politics or helping us understand the issues. it's about sarah palin being in the media. it's about donald trump. it's about ann coulter. these people are just about themselves. if we tune them out, they'll go away. it's like a rash or a scab, you pick at it, it stays. you let it heal, it's gone. >> she denies it has anything to do with it. she even disciplines her kid and says you should be going your homework and not watching tv. >> maybe there's some truth to that. >> that shuck and jive thing hasn't been used since the '70s. let's to to christina aguilera. is this ad bad for her? is website that says it caters to big girls and guys. can we hear it? ♪

♪ chunky, round >> she has reportedly been offered $3 million to work with this site for bigger girls. so what do you think? >> it's great. this is great. that song was in "madagascar," the movie. why not? there should be role models of all different body sizes for men and women. i'd like to see bathing suit models for men who only go to the gym once a month so i can feel better about myself. we should have diversity out there. feel good about your body image, as long as it's not unhealthy. >> once a month you go to the gym and i thought it was less than that. >> goi more than that. the presidential election just days away. how your choice may affect the actions of the fed, next.

[ male announcer ] this is joe woods' first day of work.

and his new boss told him two things -- cook what you love, and save your money. joe doesn't know it yet, but he'll work his way up from busser to waiter to chef before opening a restaurant

specializing in fish and game from the great northwest. he'll start investing early, he'll find some good people to help guide him, and he'll set money aside from his first day of work to his last, which isn't rocket science. it's just common sense. from td ameritrade. when you cast your ballot for president, you'll also help shape the financial future of america. ali velshi shines some light on that issue. >> reporter: theoretically, the federal reverse is independent of the president and the executive branch of government. but presidents do appoint the chairman of the fed. so it matters to you and your money who sits in that seat. alan blind ser a professor of

economics at princeton university. he's a former federal reverse vice chairman. thank you for joining us. it's good to see you. let's talk about ben bernanke's fed. does it have more of an influence on this economy -- on our markets and the economy than the fed's mission would dictate that it has? >> well, that's a hard question to answer because the fed's mission is to promote maximum employment and stable prices. as you just said, the inflation rate's been very stable over the bernanke era, as it was in the later part of the greenspan era. the fed has been working overtime, so to speak, both figuratively and literally on its employment mandate and it still is. what's clear, it's been very activist by historical standards, absolutely. >> reporter: should congress be doing more of the work that the fed is trying to achieve? >> congress should be doing more of the work the fed's trying to achieve. look, the reason the fed has

been pulling so many different levers over the last several years is that its normal weapon, the short-term interest rate, the federal funds rate, hit virtually zero all the way back in december 2008. at that point, the bernanke fed could have said, we give up, we're closing up shop, that's all we can do. i think that would have been a huge mistake. or it could try to look for other things it could do, such as these various quantitative easing s and other things the fed has put into effect. that's the course it took. i think it's the right course. it doesn't mean it got every little detail right always. but it was basically the right course. >> reporter: alan, thanks for joining us and giving us a bit of a conversation and a primer on what the fed's supposed to do and what it's been doing in the last few years. there is no stopping it, no stopping it. a korean pop star has the world doing his videos, even the u.n. secretary general did it.

can the power of gangnam style be used for good? that's next. where others fail, droid powers through.

introducing the new droid razr maxx hd by motorola. now more than ever droid does. monarch of marketing analysis. with the ability to improve roi through seo all by cob. and you...rent from national. because only national lets you choose any car in the aisle... and go. you can even take a full-size or above, and still pay the mid-size price. i'm going b-i-g. [ male announcer ] good choice business pro. good choice. go national. go like a pro.

. we have seen it on web and on tv. we're talking about gangnam style. that's a horse dance k-pop hit written and performed by korean singer psy. it has gone viral. well, recently an atlanta area hip-hop dance team performed the international hit around the city encouraging younger voters to go to the polls.